I just finished playing the first game, and it wasn't really all that great. It wasn't terrible by any means, but I found it all kind of meh. The gameplay was all a bit janky and none of the mechanics were utilized all that well. The photographing mechanic in particular was disappointing for being such a major selling point. It was just kind of dull. You looked at a thing and pushed the button. There was no grading for quality of shot like Pokemon Snap, heck you couldn't even retake photos for reports if you botched the shot but still managed to get whatever it was in frame.
The story never really grabbed me either. It was full of characters that you never get to know. All those kids in the orphanage get, what, 2 lines of dialogue each? Forgive me for not feeling the attachment I was obviously supposed to be feeling for them. Peyj was really the only interesting character and the only one that got fleshed out at all. Pacing felt pretty off too. Like we weren't really accomplishing that much, but then it rushed to the end.
It kind of felt like they ran out of money about halfway through. There's 88 pearls in the game and you start by getting one at a time from story sequences, minigames, and sidequests. But then they start throwing them at you in groups of 3s and 5s and 7s and you've got 'em all before you know it. The animal sidequest feels the same way. Sometimes the scientist lady will say something interesting about the creature you've photographed, but most of the time it's just the generic "thanks Jade!" dialogue. I really think they should have given a short bio about each of the organisms, that would have made that quest a lot more rewarding, since you don't even need to do it at all really. All you get is money and pearls (5 in total) and there's 17 more pearls in the game than you need and I ended up with 40 grand in credits and nothing to spend it on. It's a pretty short game too, It only took me 12 hours and that was with doing everything.
I don't get why it's called "Beyond Good & Evil" either. It seemed like there was a pretty clear good/evil separation between the protagonists and antagonists. Wasn't really anything beyond that though.
So why have people been waiting 14 years for a sequel?
The story never really grabbed me either. It was full of characters that you never get to know. All those kids in the orphanage get, what, 2 lines of dialogue each? Forgive me for not feeling the attachment I was obviously supposed to be feeling for them. Peyj was really the only interesting character and the only one that got fleshed out at all. Pacing felt pretty off too. Like we weren't really accomplishing that much, but then it rushed to the end.
It kind of felt like they ran out of money about halfway through. There's 88 pearls in the game and you start by getting one at a time from story sequences, minigames, and sidequests. But then they start throwing them at you in groups of 3s and 5s and 7s and you've got 'em all before you know it. The animal sidequest feels the same way. Sometimes the scientist lady will say something interesting about the creature you've photographed, but most of the time it's just the generic "thanks Jade!" dialogue. I really think they should have given a short bio about each of the organisms, that would have made that quest a lot more rewarding, since you don't even need to do it at all really. All you get is money and pearls (5 in total) and there's 17 more pearls in the game than you need and I ended up with 40 grand in credits and nothing to spend it on. It's a pretty short game too, It only took me 12 hours and that was with doing everything.
I don't get why it's called "Beyond Good & Evil" either. It seemed like there was a pretty clear good/evil separation between the protagonists and antagonists. Wasn't really anything beyond that though.
So why have people been waiting 14 years for a sequel?
